Glenn Beck: Adella the atheist in Orlando

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March 11, 2009 - 11:29 ET

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GLENN: We're going to skip science today because we're going to put God in his rightful place. I know, I know it's against what Barack Obama wants, but there's this great article, The Coming Evangelical Collapse in the Christian Science Monitor. It goes with that religion is under attack in this country and our founders clearly understood without religion, our republic would fail. Now, Adella is in Orlando and she couldn't disagree with me more. Adella, go ahead.

CALLER: Glenn, I'm a patriot. I believe in the Constitution and capitalism.

GLENN: Good.

CALLER: I'm a moral person, but I do not believe in god. And it makes me cringe when you equate American patriotism with a belief in god.

GLENN: No, I didn't say that --

CALLER: At least that's how.

GLENN: Excuse me. Don't put words in my mouth, Adella. That's not what I said. I said our founders believed that without religion our country would fail.

CALLER: Okay. I do not believe in that. I think our country would still continue.

GLENN: Well, okay. Well, that's fine. That makes Adella smarter than Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

CALLER: See, that's the thing. I don't understand why what someone said 250 years ago, should we still follow that. I mean, we're progressing, you know. I am a fiscal conservative. I'm a social liberal in other ways.

GLENN: Hang on just a second. Hold on just a second, Adella. I just, I couldn't thank you enough for calling. You don't understand why we're listening to words that came out of some people's mouths 200 years ago because we're progressing. Right?

CALLER: Well, that is my opinion of it.

GLENN: That's your opinion. There is no right opinion. That's just your opinion.

CALLER: Okay, Glenn. Then does that mean that we all have to believe in God because they did?

GLENN: No, no, no. I just want to understand what you're saying because you are saying we're progressing. In other words, what you say is that man progresses, that man evolves and we are more evolved and enlightened than those guys were 250 years ago?

CALLER: No, I think I used the wrong word, "Progressing."

GLENN: I'm sure you did.

CALLER: I don't want to say they did bad. That's not what I'm --

GLENN: I'm not saying that. I'm not saying this was bad. It was just their understanding at this time and we're more evolved.

CALLER: Yes.

GLENN: Yes.

CALLER: Well, see, that's the thing. I don't know if I used the right word, "Progress."

GLENN: Sure.

CALLER: But what I want to say is --

GLENN: Hang on a second. Why do you hesitate on that word?

CALLER: The word "Progress"?

GLENN: Yeah.

CALLER: Because I don't think religion is a bad thing. You know, people can believe in it. There's nothing wrong with that. I personally don't believe in it.

GLENN: Right. What's the problem with using the word "Progress"?

CALLER: Because I -- well, what the problem is to use the word "Progress"?

GLENN: Yeah.

CALLER: There's nothing wrong with the actual word "Progress." I did not use the right word to say from 200 years ago we're progressing. I did not use the right word but there's nothing wrong with progression. There's nothing wrong with that.

GLENN: Sure. You know who agrees with you 110%, you stated almost verbatim the words of Woodrow Wilson. He's a progressive. And there were lots of Republican progressives back around the turn of the century. It's the people that Hillary Clinton talks about. In fact, Woodrow Wilson said that the Declaration of Independence has no standing whatsoever because we have progressed past that. In fact, he believed the preamble of the Constitution should be completely disregarded because those were different times. And he believed that man continues to progress and what we had back then in the Constitution should not be looked at really anymore. We should look at case law because what happens is people look at the Constitution. Well, that was set up for the 1700s. That was set up, you know, by these guys who are, you know, worried about tea taxes, et cetera, et cetera. And now the world is much more complex and so what we have here is where the law should be and where we are today. So we can just keep moving the law by looking at case law instead of referring back to the old Constitution. So you'll agree with a guy who was very instrumental in the 20th century.

CALLER: Well, I agree with one thing. We have moved away from slavery. I mean, a lot of those founders did have slaves. We moved away from that.

GLENN: Now, did we move away from slavery? I mean, I know that we no longer -- I know we no longer have the chains of slavery, but have we -- are we enslaving people in any other way? Is there only one kind of slavery, Adella?

CALLER: There's welfare dependency I think is slavery.

GLENN: There's what?

CALLER: Welfare dependency.

GLENN: Oh, okay.

CALLER: And I think that is not really relevant to this -- to what I was saying which was that like myself, I am an American patriot, an Iraq war vet and I don't believe that we need God, at least in my life.

GLENN: Adella --

CALLER: In my life.

GLENN: Adella, I'm fine. You don't have to believe in God. But let's not confuse the issue on what you believe and what the founders believed. If you want to restore the Constitution, if you believe in the Constitution, then you're on the wrong path, Adella, and the reason why you're on the wrong path is because you believe in progressive thought. That is the whole concept. That's why they're called progressives. It stemmed from here. It stemmed from evolution, that if man evolves from monkeys, then man also evolves in thought, and government may have been bad in the past but we have evolved from that. And those laws that were -- those laws that the founders had are outdated now. We have progressed from that. We have different thoughts. So we don't have to regard that. I'm not asking for -- you know, what we have now is relative law. We have progressive law. I'm not suggesting that we should stay here. What I'm talking about is restoring the Constitution. So if you want to restore the Constitution and the principles that our founders had, well, then you've got to understand what they believed. And I don't think you do, Adella.

CALLER: I understand what they -- I mean, if they believe in God, that's fine. But there's a lot of us out here who are conservative and who do not have a religious life.

GLENN: That is so amazing. You know what, Adella, you don't have to. You don't have to.

CALLER: Then why do I feel Republicans want to eject me and they only care about me when I vote?

GLENN: That's weird. Because I thought you were Republican.

CALLER: I am.

GLENN: Ah, but somehow or another we reject you. Adella --

CALLER: Oh, no, I'm not saying we. I'm talking about a particular wing. Looks like there's a battle between the Democrats, they have their battles and there's a battle between the Republican Party.

GLENN: You know what, let me give you this and this is what, you know, I hope you were getting from the monologue but obviously -- I would hope others would get. You obviously didn't. It doesn't matter your theology, and there are some that think that have to battle their theology. That is against our founders as well. After our Constitution was signed, our founders got together and Christians and founders and rabbis got together arm in arm and walked down the street of Philadelphia because they were united in one principle and that is God, not theology.

Now, Adella, if you don't have God, these fine. That is fine. But you do have to peg your belief system to something, and let me give you -- where this thought really came from for the founders was Cicero. Read Cicero. Cicero was a Roman and he was one of the first guys and he said, you know, it's nature; you can't change nature. There is some sort of a movable law here. It's nature's law. And when you violate that nature, that natural law, well, you pay a consequence for it. So you just have to understand that there is a law. Whether you like to see it or not, whether you want to call it God or you want to call it something else, whatever, nature doesn't change. There is a system of rules that the universe plays in and you've got to play in those rules, and they are unmovable. You cannot change the laws of nature. Why is that? Well, there are natural laws that apply to man and those natural laws are important. Those natural laws give you the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They do not give you the right to take those away from anyone. They do not give you the right to interfere with anyone unless they are violating nature's law that gave everybody the same right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And that's where religionists get in trouble as well because it has to be a choice. You must choose. Life is all about a choice. No one can take this away. No one can throw you up against the wall and say you've got to believe this. That is also against our founding. Our founders were not those people. They were deeply religious. They believed in God but they didn't believe in forcing anyone to believe in their God. That goes against us. We work together and we don't violate each other's rights and we live in harmony because we choose to do the right thing. We choose to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.